Morning Musings
by kalopereve
Summary: It's all the good memories in Luffy's head that keep him going.


**One**_** Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda. **_

_A winning cry and a disappointed growl._

_"You suck, you really d- Agh, what are you doing?! Get _off_!"_

_ "Mmphffmmmph!"_

_"Hey, quit chewing on my arm, will ya?!" _

_"But I'm not a loser!"_

_"I didn't say you were a loser, I just said that you suck." Grimy hands pick up a chalk to change the score on the board. "Two hundred and thirty-seven to one. How did you even win that one time?"_

_"Blehhhh! Fight me again! Rematch!"_

_A /thwack/ as the chalk falls to the ground carelessly._

_"No, it's lunch time and I'm hungry!" A pause. "We're going bear-hunting." _

_An explosion of giddy happiness. "Yippee! Bear-meat!" _

_The little boy staggers along in tow with a grin that covers half his face, all thoughts of a rematch forgotten. _

_"This time, you'd better wait till the meat has finished cooking BEFORE devouring everything." _

* * *

His eyes snap open just as the half-monkey, half-bird hybrid turns to swoop down towards him at a shocking speed. A quick shift to the side prevents the bird's razor-sharp talons from digging into his chest.

"Gomu-Gomu no Gattling!" He's still bleary-eyed from sleep. Stupid bird interrupting his dream. He's gonna catch it and eat it, he decides. It'd taste good with a side of some coconut. The bird lunges again for a second attack. Its lightning-quick speed serves to its disadvantage, making it unable to avoid the rush of attacks in time. This earns it a few dozen impaling punches on its massive form that manages to knock it out, at least for the time being.

He lets out a breath, still lying on his back. With his attacks newly-enforced with Haki, opponents like these are nothing. Simply part of morning exercise. Hopping to his feet, he grabs the half-dead bird by its talons, yawns, and drags it over to where the ashy remains of last night's fire are lying scattered. He always used to have someone cook his food for him. Though he would have had a hand in catching the poor animal, separating its parts, cleaning it out a bit, he never cooked it. It was always done for him, the meat magically appearing hot and yummy and juicy in his hands. How convenient! He doesn't have any choice now, though, he thinks glumly. Now why could food not be eaten raw? It would be easier for everyone, for him especially. But he remembers those few hellish days in his distant memory of body-wracking stomach cramps, explosive diarrhea and distinct yells of _"I told you to wait for it to cook, didn't I?!"_ and decides that it's okay, he would take the time to cook his food properly, although it wouldn't taste as great as Sanji's.

* * *

_"Luuuuunch time!" Sanji hollered from the galley, accompanied with the repeated clanging of a wooden spatula against metal. _

_He clumsily shoved the weights he had just been playing with back into their rack, earning an "Oi!" from Zoro as he leapt out the door and landed in a messy, rubbery heap on the deck. Meatmeatmeatmeatmeatmeatmeat - oh oops, what was that thing he just trampled on? Never mind, seems like Sanji had cooked some honey-roasted turkey today which smelled yummy and would definitely taste as yummy. They rarely had honey-roasted turkey. However, Sanji had taken the opportunity of a busy market place at an island port a few days ago to get them a great discount on a fat, meaty turkey. He remembered how happy Nami was._

_ His nose and watering mouth led his feet to the dining area and to his special spinning chair at the head of the table that he had asked Franky to custom-make for him before. It was fun to spin around while talking and eating and laughing. Made his head spin._

_"Stop drooling on the food and dirtying it before we start eating!" yelled Nami as she stuffed the table cloth into his mouth. Chopper let out a peal of high-pitched laughter at the sight while Usopp walked in just at that moment, grumbling at the top of his voice about a certain idiot who had destroyed one of his finest creations, because hey these materials weren't easy to come by, you know? Then Usopp saw the gleam of dripping honey on a large plate of fat turkey and happily snapped his mouth shut, seating himself at the table opposite Brook._

_"Captain-san, it would be a bad idea to have the lamb so dangerously close to you at the start of the meal." Hands sprouted along the table to carry the large plate towards the other end. _

_"Give me back my meat!" He wailed across the table._

_"How smart, darling Robin-chwan! No less expected from a maiden of such splendor!"_

_"Yohohoho!"_

_"That meat looks SUPER!"_

_Unwilling to fight back against Robin, he focused his attention instead on the nearest plate of gleaming pork ribs, before carefully counting nine seated. _

_"Let's EAT!" _

* * *

He picks up one of the many bird-monkey bones lying around and starts drawing the huge turkey, honey dripping off it's sides. He misses them, so he draws Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. And then he draws himself. All of them are eating the huge turkey with big smiles on their faces like that turkey is the best thing to have ever happened to them.

Then suddenly the turkey is drawn to be a ferocious fire-breathing turkey-beast with massive wings of steel, and all of them are fighting it. Zoro and Brook have their swords drawn, Chopper is holding a Rumble Ball, Usopp has his sling-shot aimed, Nami is wielding her Climatact, Franky has unleashed Strong Right, Sanji has a kick aimed to the monster's head, and Robin has numerous limbs scattered around to defend her nakama. It all looks more of children rampaging in a playground than anything else so he drops the stick and kicks dirt over the drawing. It wasn't a very pretty drawing, anyway.

He knows when he sees them again they would have changed, they would have become stronger. They wouldn't be fighting stupid turkeys.

He needs to get stronger too. Stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and stronger, like he vowed to Ace and like he vowed to himself as Captain of the Strawhat Pirates. He's not going to let his brother down. Not after all that he had done, after all he had given him. The next time he sees his nakama, he's gonna be so strong that this kind of separation would never have to happen to them ever again.

So he kicks himself off the ground and gets up and going, head filled with thoughts of his nakama and sworn brother and heart filled with a gripping determination.

• I would love a review •


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